Check Out These Crazy iPhone and iPad Prototypes From Apple (Gallery)

Court documents recently revealed Apple's early iPad Prototype 035 device, which was fat, huge and much uglier than the iPads on the market today. Now, additional documents have revealed several more photos of the early iPad, as well as a look at Apple's designs for the first iPhone.

Thanks to The Verge, which published the images, we can see that Apple once considered a kickstand mechanism for the iPad. Today, of course, that doesn't exist and you need to purchase a case or accessory for that functionality. Even weirder, the tablet actually says "iPod" on the back (check out the gallery below). Maybe Apple once considered making the iPad a part of its iPod family?

Photos of an early iPhone prototype were also published today, which is allegedly a CAD rendering from 2004 — three years before the original iPhone hit the market. It has a similar look to the first iPhone, although its edges are sharper and more angular… almost Lumia 900-ish. The iPhone changed the entire smartphone industry when it launched in 2007. Imagine what that change would have been like if it happened three years earlier?